Fall's Classical Season Kicks Off With Salt Marsh Opera

Rolling in with the foliage and crisper temperatures are quite a few highlights for a fresh season of classical music concerts and events.

HSO Masterworks Series: "Porgy and Bess"

>>Oct. 16-19, Belding Theater The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts., 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford: The Hartford Symphony Orchestra opens its Masterworks season with a concert version of "Porgy and Bess" by George Gershwin. Also featured on this program will be concerto for Koto (which is a Japanese stringed instrument) in which the orchestra will be joined by virtuoso koto player Masayo Ishigure. The program will be conducted by Music Director Carolyn Kuan.

Itzhak Perlman in Recital

>>Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m. Mortensen Hall, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts: This event is being presented as a benefit concert for both the Educational and Community programs of The Bushnell and HSO. Perlman will perform with pianist Rohan De Silva in chamber works that will include the Schumann Fantasiestück, Beethoven's Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, and the Ravel Sonata.

HSO Masterworks Series: "Beethoven's Emperor Concerto"

>>Nov. 13-16. Belding Theater, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts: This is the ultimate program for the philosopher in your life. Music Director Carolyn Kuan will lead the HSO in the "Tragic Overture" by Brahms, followed by "Death and Transfiguration" by Richard Strauss, and ending with Beethoven's last piano concerto. The Croatian pianist Martina Filjak will be the featured soloist.

HSO Masterworks Series: "Mozart & Dvoák"

>>Dec. 4-7. Belding Theater, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts: Guest conductor William Eddins, who is music director of the Edmonton Symphony, will both conduct the HSO and be the featured piano soloist in this program. The concert will center on Mozart's piano concerto in G major K. 453, and will also include an overture by the composer Jean Françaix (1912-1997) called "Hommage à l'ami Papageno" which was inspired by themes from Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute." The program will close with the Symphony No.7 in D minor by Dvoák.Tickets: 860-244-2999; www.hartfordsymphony.org

Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series

Garmany Chamber Music Series; JACK Quartet

>>Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m., Millard Auditorium, Hartt School: This is the sixth season of the Garmany Chamber Series, and it has already become a fixture on the Connecticut music scene. In this season-opening event, the JACK quartet will show what string quartets can do when they focus on playing the best in 20th century music. The program will include "Structures" by Morton Feldman, Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 3, and the amazing String Quartet by Ruth Crawford Seeger.

Garmany Chamber Series; Calder Quartet

>>Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m., Millard Auditorium, Hartt School, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford: The New York Times said that The Calder Quartet "showed that the time-honored string quartet format still provides fertile ground for innovation and surprise in the hands of imaginative, skillful creators." Alex Ross described their Beethoven and Mozart and "formidable." The Calder Quartet won the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and are sure to impress. Information: 860-768-4228, harttweb.hartford.edu

These choral concerts will each feature one of the three finalists who remain in the CONCORA conductor search. One of these conductors will replace Richard Coffey as artistic director of CONCORA in 2015. Attend these concerts and your voice can be heard as a part of this important process. All three concerts will be held at First Church, 830 Corbin Ave, New Britain, and each concert will be followed by a gathering at which you can meet the finalist who conducted that day. For ticket information: contact concora.org or call 860-293-0567 for additional information.

Takács Quartet with Pianist Marc-André Hamelin at Jorgensen

>>Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m., at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs: Gramophone Magazine wrote that the Takács Quartet has "the ability to make you believe that there's no other possible way the music should go, and the strength to overturn preconceptions that comes only with the greatest performers." Their program will include the Haydn String Quartet, Op. 64, No. 3 and the Debussy String Quartet. Then they will be joined by Hamelin for the Franck Piano Quintet. Information: 860-486-4226, jorgensen.uconn.edu

Salt Marsh Opera: The Marriage of Figaro

>>Oct. 3, 7 p.m., and Oct. 5, 3 p.m. at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, Old Saybrook: This opera was Mozart's classic statement on intrigue and quick thinking. This production in Old Saybrook will be fully staged and will be performed with a live orchestra. For additional information call 860-510-0473; katharinehepburntheater.org

>>Oct. 31 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 2 at 2 p.m., Hoffman Auditorium of the University of Saint Joseph, 1678 Asylum Ave., West Hartford: Members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra will perform onstage in a semi-staged production. Both operas are in the comic tradition. If you have not yet heard an opera given by the CCO, this event will be a great introduction. Tickets: 860-722-2300, www.connconcertopera.org